A CALAMITY BEFALLS ROSS
ROSS was writing to Dr. and Mrs. Grant. He bent over the rough table
under the light of two candles stuck into the logs above his head. Weimer
slept in his bunk the sound and noisy sleep of a tired laborer.
"At the rate we're going at present," Ross wrote, "we'll finish work
by the middle of May.... We have at least one thing to be thankful for
in our tunnel. We're not obliged to timber it. Of course, blasting
through solid rock isn't easy nor fast work, but I guess in the long run
we get along faster than we would through dirt. In this case, you see
we should be obliged to snake logs down from the mountainside and build
side walls and roof in the tunnel for our own safety. How's 'snaking'
for you, Aunt Anne? First time I heard it I hadn't an idea what it
meant, but it covers the process of cutting down trees and getting them
to their destination. Tell you what! We speak some language up here.
The King's English isn't always in it, but then every one understands,
and I have fallen into using it as easily as a fish takes to water. And
I am getting hardened to the work and the weather. I wouldn't mind the
whole thing so much now if only the way to Miners' Camp would remain
open. But any day it may become practically impassable, and then I cannot
hear from you nor you from me for months. That--as I look ahead--is
the tough part of it, being cooped up here with only five of us; and how
the McKenzies can remain without laying in more provisions I don't
see. They have meat enough, but that's all. With this letter I'm
taking another over to Camp for Leslie's father. I ought to have sent
him word before that Leslie hasn't been seen nor heard of since he
disappeared, but every day I've looked for him back--the whole affair
worries me a lot--I should think as soon as he gets my letter, old man
Quinn would come and hunt Leslie up himself."
At this point there was the sound of laughter outside, and Ross laid
aside his pencil and pad.
"Sandy," he muttered, listening.
To his surprise it was not Sandy whom the opening door revealed, but Lon
and Waymart, both in unprecedented high spirits.
"We left Sandy snorin'," Waymart volunteered. "He and Uncle Jake ought
to bunk in together. Lon, show Ross how Sandy talks in his sleep."
Weston sat down, leaned his head back against the logs, gave one or
two passes through his hair, which left it arranged like Sandy's with
a lock falling over his forehead; and in an instant, although Weston
was dark and Sandy fair, an excellent imitation of the latter mumbled
and talked and snored against the logs. Weston accurately and easily
imitated the voice and manner of Sandy with his laugh and every facial
characteristic. Even Weimer rolled over in his bunk and laughed. Next,
Weston, carried out of himself by an appreciative audience, imitated
Waymart, the sheep-herder at Dry Creek, and finally Ross himself, and
did it all with amazing success.
Ross, convulsed with laughter, rocked back and forth on his box. It was
the first real fun he had encountered since leaving Pennsylvania. It
did not seem possible that this Weston was the same half-sullen, wholly
silent man whom he had nursed at the stage camp.
Ross sat opposite the window in front of which Weston was performing; and
finally, just as Waymart had called for an imitation of Weimer, the boy,
glancing up, encountered Sandy's face outside the dirty pane. It
remained there but an instant while Sandy took the measure of the
performer, but that instant was enough to show Ross the full expression
of which he had caught glimpses before, and which revealed the side of
his character that Sandy usually concealed. His blue eyes glinted
angrily. His thin lips, tightly closed, wore a cruel expression, while
every feature clearly showed a malignant disapproval of Weston's
methods of entertainment.
The laugh died in Ross's throat; but the next instant the door swung
open and Sandy entered, gay and careless--except as to eyes. They still
glinted.
"Thought ye'd shook me, didn't ye?" he asked with a grin. "Wall, this
racket would bring a feller up from his grave, to say nothin' of a
little snooze."
He pushed a box over on its side, and sat astride it; and at once
the atmosphere in the cabin changed, and became frigid, despite the
newcomer's gaiety. Weston slunk back to his seat, and all Ross's
urging proved ineffectual to draw him out of his shell again. Waymart's
face also lost its good humor.
Presently the three left together.
Weimer, wide awake, moved around the shack.
"Dat Veston!" he chuckled. "How many kinds of beoples ist he? I could
shut mine eyes and tink he vas dem all."
The next day was Sunday, and early in the morning in the teeth of a mild
wind and threatened storm Ross was off for Miners' Camp. As far as the
shoulder around Crosby he went on snow-shoes. Arrived at the shoulder,
and, making use of the long, sharp spike which he carried, he picked
his way cautiously forward, pushing through the deep snow in the trail
with his feet and knees, the spike set on the outer edge to prevent
his slipping. Again and again a ledge of overhanging snow would break
away and fall on him; and, light even as the snow yet was, its weight
dropping on his shoulders caused him to stagger. The snow-shoes also
became a burden, for they were a useless encumbrance until he reached
the foot of the mountain and struck out for Steele's shack over two
miles of snow already five feet deep.
When he reached Gale's Ridge, he was almost exhausted, not only from
pushing through the snow on the trail, but from the unaccustomed effort
of walking on snow-shoes. Already he was dreading the most difficult task
of all--the return journey.
Steele met him with a manifest uneasiness.
"Grant, your trips down to Camp this season are numbered," he cautioned
as they sat down to an early dinner. "An old trailer could creep around
the shoulder of Crosby for a little while yet, but neither you nor I
could do it in safety. The snow's gettin' so almighty deep now, and
blowin' up in ledges on the shoulder--you probably got a ducking coming
over?" His tone arose inquiringly.
Ross nodded. "Several times a lot of snow dropped on me; once I almost
lost my balance."
Steele moved uneasily. "That's the trouble with that trail even before
there's danger of a regular avalanche. You're likely to get swept over
when you least expect it, and going back is worse than coming."
Directly after dinner Ross commenced to bind on his snow-shoes for an
early departure, having filled his pockets with candy for Weimer. His
heart was heavy, and he had a queer, choky sensation as he looked around
the little shack, which he might not see again in months.
Steele was adjusting the straps on his own snow-shoes.
"Going up the canon with me, are you?" asked Ross.
Steele nodded, and got into his top-coat. "A little way," he answered
briefly.
Although it was only one o'clock in the afternoon, twilight had fallen.
The clouds rolled up the canon so low that they hung almost within
reach of the men's hands, although not much snow was yet falling. An
indescribable gloom filled the canon, the gloom of utter isolation and
loneliness. Not a breath of wind was stirring; not a movement of a tree
was audible. Everywhere were the deep snow, the silent trees, the great
white hulks of the mountains; and over all the clouds glowered sullenly.
Nature had erected sudden and impenetrable barriers in all directions,
and Ross felt as though he were striving against them all.
In silence the two traveled the distance which lay between Gale's Ridge
and the upper end of Miners' Camp, which was at present a deserted
end. When they passed out of sight of the eating house on Gale's
Ridge, they left behind them every sign of life. The Mountain Company had
shut down two weeks before. A few men had gone to Steele, but the
majority had betaken themselves "below." Their shacks stood as the
owners had left them, with their stoves, their crude furniture, and in
some cases provisions, intact.
The stage was due now only once a week, and the post-office had been
removed to Steele's cabin. The former postmaster had gone to work on a
ranch on the Grey Bull, leaving the post-office doors wide open, the
snow filling the cabin and banking up against the letter boxes.
"By April," said Steele, "you can't see even the roof of a single one
of these places down here next the river. They'll all be plumb covered
with snow."
Steele did not stop, as Ross supposed he would, at the foot of Crosby,
but started up the trail.
"Where are you going?" demanded the boy.
The superintendent went on. His reply came back muffled by the heavy air.
"Around the shoulder of this little hill."
Nor could any protest from Ross restrain him.
As they began the ascent, Ross found the moisture hanging in drops to
his clothing, while his face felt as though it were being bathed in
ice-water. At the same time the clouds settled all about them.
"This is literally walking with our heads in the clouds," muttered Steele
grimly. "And this is the weather that'll pack the snow in this trail
with a crust as hard as earth--ugh!"
They ascended the trail laboriously, Steele in the lead, Ross lagging
behind, leg-weary, and heavy-hearted at the thought of the months to
come. Around the shoulder of the mountain they cautiously felt their
way, the thick clouds about them seeming to press back the banks of snow
above.
Once on the safe trail beyond the shoulder Steele turned, and held out
his hand without a word. Also wordless, Ross gripped it. Then the older
man took the back trail, and disappeared.
The boy stood where the other left him, staring into the clouds which
hid the shoulder. As he stood, a slight breeze touched his cheek and
died away. He buckled his snow-shoes on again, and faced Meadow Creek
Valley. As he did so, the breeze came again. Presently it turned into
a wind, and the clouds retreated hastily up the mountainside. Great
flakes of snow filled the air. Faster and faster they came swirling down
until the air was thick with a storm which cut sharply against Ross's
face. He hurried on, and in an hour was beyond the reach of the storm in
Weimer's shack, drying his wet coat and cap.
He found his old partner half wild with anxiety.
"If you did not come pack to-night," he cried, "I thought you would
never! A plizzard ist now."
So rejoiced was Uncle Jake at Ross's return that he sat near the fire
and waxed garrulous while the wind lashed the trees and drove the snow
outside; and Ross, the other side of the stove, shivered and listened
listlessly.
"What ails you, hein?" Weimer finally demanded.
And Ross, with a lump in his throat of which he was not ashamed, told him.
"Ach!" exclaimed Weimer disgustedly. He snapped his thumb and finger
together. "I vas here dree vinters alone mit no one near. Py day I
vorked. Py night dem volves howl und cayotes; but," consolingly, "dey
can't git in, und dey vant nicht to git in."
Then for the first time he went on to relate to Ross in his quaint and
broken English many stories of those lonely winters in this solitary
valley, which had then held him as its only inhabitant.
"No wonder," thought Ross, listening to the fury of the storm, "that the
old man's mind was ready to give away under the additional trial of an
attack of snow-blindness."
The blizzard continued in unabated fury all the next day. Neither Weimer
nor Ross visited the tunnel. They remained housed, watching the snow
gradually pile itself around the little shack until the two small windows
were obscured, and they were obliged to resort to candle-light.
But during the night the wind changed, and the following morning the sun
rose in a brilliantly blue sky. Directly after an early breakfast Ross
started to shovel a way out of the cabin. He dug the snow away from the
door and windows, and then turned his attention to the trail leading to
the tunnel. Here he found that the wind had favored him, sweeping the
path clean and filling up the hollows. In the valley the snow lay seven
feet deep.
Ross worked his way to the ore-dump, at the base of which he paused to
look down on the McKenzies. Their cabin was also released from the snow
as to door and window. The snow was also tramped and shoveled around the
discovery hole, but no one was in sight, and Ross had turned again to
his task when a yell caused him again to face the McKenzie cabin.
Sandy was gesticulating frantically while he advanced rapidly on
snow-shoes, dodging the trees as he came diagonally across the
mountainside. He came on, talking at the top of his voice, but all
Ross could catch was "sticks" and "thief" and "trail." Sandy was plainly
excited. His neckerchief was knotted under one ear; his coat was
buttoned up awry; his cap was on with one ear-flap dangling, and the
other held fast by the rim of the cap. His ears and nose were scarlet,
the thermometer registering, that morning, thirty below zero.
"Our dynamite is gone," Sandy yelled when he was near enough to make Ross
understand. "Gone--stolen."
Ross stared at him stupidly. "Who is there to take it?"
"Some one," panted Sandy with an oath, "must have come up the trail
Sunday and taken the stuff, thinkin' that it 'ud storm right off and
shut up the trail so none of us 'ud be such fools as t' go over t'
Camp after more. That's the way I've figured it out, and I lay ye I'm
right."
"When did you find out the sticks were gone?" asked Ross with an interest
which did not as yet reach beyond Sandy.
"A few minutes ago," gasped Sandy. "I come as fast as I could to see if
your----"
Ross cut him short with a loud exclamation, and without waiting to hear
the end of the sentence turned and plunged up over the dump, ploughing
and fighting his way through the snow as though it were a thing of life.
Sandy picked up the wooden shovel which the boy had cast away, and
followed out of breath, but still talking.
"You know we kept the sticks in a box under a hemlock right above the
hole, and----"
Ross, unheeding, floundered across the dump, and began to dig wildly at
the tool-house door, only the upper part of which was visible. With set
teeth he dug, forgetting Sandy, forgetting the shovel, his common sense
swallowed up in a panic of fear.
Weimer had always kept the dynamite sticks in a box, a large double
boarded and heavily lidded affair which was set in the corner of the
tool chest furthest from the door.
At first Ross had raised the lid of this box with chills creeping down
his spine. His hair had stirred under his cap when he first saw Weimer
stuff the sticks carelessly into his pocket and enter the tunnel. But
familiarity with the use of the sticks had robbed them of their terror,
although Ross was always cautious in the handling.
"Hold on, Doc." Sandy's voice at his elbow finally brought the frantic
boy to his senses. "Ye can't do nothin' with yer hands. Stand aside
there, and I'll shovel the snow away from the door."
Ross stood back, unconscious of the nip of the cold on his nose and
cheeks, and watched Sandy shoveling with a will, the while talking
consolingly.
"I don't believe the thieves have come anigh ye; don't look so, anyway.
It's likely some one who's a grudge against some of us. There's plenty
holds grudges agin Lon. Wisht he'd stayed in the valley--here ye be!
Ketch a holt of this side of the door. Now, one, two, three!"
The door yielded to their combined efforts, and Ross rushed in with Sandy
at his heels. His fingers were so numbed he could scarcely raise the lid
of the dynamite box. A film seemed to cover his eyes, and in the light
which entered grudgingly only by way of the door he could see nothing.
He bent his head further over the box, but it was Sandy's voice which
confirmed his worst fears.
"Not a stick left. They've made a clean sweep of Medder Creek Valley!"
The film cleared from Ross's eyes, but not from his brain. The box was
empty--the box which had contained the stuff absolutely necessary to the
work in the tunnel.
Ross glanced up and met Sandy's eyes. Sandy's eyes looked steadily and
guilelessly into Ross's, and Sandy's face expressed all the sympathy
and commiseration of which Ross stood in need.
The boy sat down on the edge of the box. "What shall I do?" he asked,
his thoughts in a whirl.
"Do about th' same as we've got t'--git out!" quoth Sandy with a
lugubrious shake of his head. "Here we got Lon up here t' help push
our work, and now we're up a stump; for ye know"--here Sandy's eyes
held Ross's while he spoke slowly--"there's no use thinkin' about
gittin' any over from Camp. No one 'ud be crazy enough to resk packin'
a load of sticks around the shoulder this time of year."
Ross shivered as he thought of the shoulder under its body of snow.
"When are you going?" he asked.
"To-morrow," answered Sandy promptly. "We'll start then, but we'll have
to shovel through. You'll have t' lead Weimer, won't ye?"
Ross swallowed twice before he answered. "Yes, I suppose so."
"We'll help ye." Sandy's tones were good-natured and soothing. He
seemed suddenly to have lost all regret at the disappearance of his
store of dynamite. "We'll break open the trail, and then we can rope
ourselves together around the shoulder. That's safer."
"All right," Ross heard himself say in an unnatural voice. He could not
in an instant adjust himself to this radical uprooting of his plans.
"It'll be a ticklish job," Sandy continued, "t' break through around
the shoulder without bringin' down the hull side of old Crosby on us,
includin' a few rocks; but every day now we put it off is so much the
worse."
He turned to go. "Then we'll pick ye up in the mornin'; will we?"
"Why--I suppose so," returned Ross. "There doesn't seem to be anything
else to do."
"Better not load up much," warned Sandy; "and don't give Uncle Jake a
load at all. All we're goin' to try to pack over is a little venison."
Then Sandy disappeared, and Ross suddenly recovered from his mental
numbness. It was the sting of anger which aroused him. So confused
and disappointed had he been, and so well had Sandy played his part,
that the true solution of the theft did not dawn on the boy until the
other's departure. Then he stopped short on the downward trail and
uttered an exclamation, his hands clinching inside his mittens, and
his eyes narrowing and flashing.
Of course, it was Sandy's own brain which had planned the matter and
Sandy's own henchmen who had made off with the sticks. They had taken
this way of stopping the progress of work in the tunnel. They had waited
until no more dynamite could be brought over the trail, calculating that
when the time came for the claims to be patented one half year's work
would be undone, and then!
Ross started blindly down the path. He would go over to the Camp with
the McKenzies. He would go down to Meeteetse with them--no officer of the
law could be found nearer, and there he would put them all under arrest.
Here he stopped again. Arrest them on what evidence? Face to face with
this question, he was obliged to acknowledge the neatness of the scheme
which had for its first point the theft of their own sticks. Could he
prove that no one had come over the trail after he reached the valley?
And could he prove that the dynamite had not been taken by this mythical
some one?
Ross thought of what Steele had said concerning trusting Sandy with his
pocketbook. Sandy would have the contents of the purse, Steele said,
but he'd take care to get them in such a way that he could shake hands
afterward with the owner, as well as face any jury.
"And Steele," Ross muttered, drawing a long breath, "was right."
The news of the loss seemed to jar Weimer back into a semblance of his
former intelligence. Instead of ranting as Ross expected he would he sat
down and talked over the situation reasonably with his young partner.
It was Weimer, in fact, who restored something like hope to Ross.
He objected to leaving the valley with the McKenzies. He had been over
that valley and the surrounding mountains inch by inch, he told Ross.
Let that "consarned gang" be gone. They two would stay and bring the
dynamite to light. Then he told of place after place on the mountain
which would make excellent hiding-places for the sticks. There were
many caves, and some of them dry. Weimer reasoned the "gang" would cache
the sticks in a dry place for their own future use.
Temporarily the old partner and the young changed places, and, as Ross
listened, he became stout of heart once more.
"Of course," he exclaimed, "if dynamite can't be carried up the trail,
neither can it be taken back into Camp. It's got to be somewhere around
here; and, if we hunt for it a month, we can still get the work done in
time."
"Vy didn't I tink of dem sticks?" Weimer asked angrily. "I might know
dem consarned gang pe up to somet'ing ven dey see our vork it vas
gettin' fast! Vy didn't I tink?"
Ross, having lapsed into his own thoughts, made no reply; and Weimer
arose from the box where he had been sitting, and crawled into his bunk.
Ross paced the floor slowly, his arms folded behind him. Ross's
fighting blood was up. Before this he had looked at his work as the
result of his father's request. It was not to his liking, and the only
actual pleasure he took in it was the prospect of finishing it. He had
believed before the theft of the sticks that he would welcome anything
which really necessitated his leaving Meadow Creek Valley, although he
would accept nothing less than necessity.
But this theft seemed suddenly to have made the work his own and the
failure to accomplish it a personal defeat. Instead of rejoicing over the
prospect of leaving Meadow Creek Valley he welcomed eagerly Weimer's
suggestion that they stay and hunt for the dynamite, even though the hunt
meant that, dynamite or no dynamite, they must be shut up in the valley
for months to come.
Suddenly a new fear caused him to scramble hastily into his coat, cap,
and mittens.
"I'm going to fetch the tools down," he explained grimly. "I'm not
going to risk having some one make off with them!"
"Dat ist so," assented Weimer. "Ve vill need dose tools; ve vill. Dose
McKenzie gang vill see. I can find dose sticks, und I know I can."
None of the McKenzies came over that evening, to Ross's relief, for
the events of the day had brought a new fear of that outfit. Sandy's
good-natured neighborliness had deceived him. Now for the first time
he realized that they were actual enemies, ready to stoop to any means
within the law to baffle him.
It was scarcely daylight the following morning, although breakfast in
the Weimer cabin had been disposed of, before there was heard a tramp of
feet outside through the creaking snow, and Sandy with a heavy pack on
his back appeared at the door.
"All ready t' strike the trail?" he asked, putting his head inside the
shack.
There was an instant's silence, during which Sandy's face changed as he
looked quickly from Ross to Weimer. The latter sat beside the table, his
head resting on his hand, his elbow on the boards.
Ross answered, "We can't get ready to go so quickly."
For a moment Sandy's face was the face which had appeared at the window
the night Weston was indulging in mimicry, but for a moment only. Then
he rallied and assumed an air of concerned astonishment.
"What? Not ready? Why, man alive, yer chance may be gone if ye wait
another day. Uncle Jake, you ought to know that, if Doc here don't.
Why, we're afraid we can't come it even by ropin' together. Better
hustle up and come."
Both Weimer and Ross sat still, and after a little further parley Waymart
called angrily:
"Hike along here, Sandy. Guess they know what they want t' do better
'n you do. Make tracks here!"
The three "made tracks," while Ross stood and watched them out of sight.
But after they had gone the boy, uneasy lest they should return to do the
tunnel some damage, climbed the trail and entered the tool house. The
house was fastened between two trees which grew at one side of the dump,
the side furthest from the trail across the mountain toward Miners' Camp.
Ross had entered aimlessly after assuring himself that the door at the
mouth of the tunnel had not been opened. He stood silently looking out
of a crack down on the mass of snow which glistened at the foot of the
dump, when he was startled by seeing Sandy on snow-shoes creep around the
dump and look up.
Only a glance upward did Sandy give, and them, turning, disappeared. Yet
his face had appeared anxious before that upward glance, while afterward
there was on it a satisfied smile.
The hours that followed were anxious ones for the two remaining in Meadow
Creek Valley. They began a hunt for the dynamite as soon as the McKenzies
had disappeared. Starting at the McKenzie shack and discovery hole they
widened the search in a circle which finally included the valley and the
sides of the adjoining mountains, with a single important omission; it
did not occur to either of them to examine their own premises further
than to assure themselves that neither tool house nor tunnel had suffered
any damage from their "friends the enemy."
At four o'clock came the first signs of dusk and, discouraged, the
partners moved slowly across the valley. Half-way across, Ross chanced
to glance up at the stovepipe projecting from the roof of their shack.
"A fire!" he shouted. "Look there, Uncle Jake! Some one has built up the
fire!"
At that instant the door swung open and Leslie Quinn stood in the doorway.